Chapter 12: The Choice
Chapter 12: The Choice
The office remained silent after the computer restarted.
No files.
No warning.
No trace of whoever had replaced the screen with those two chilling words.
STOP DIGGING.
Javier checked every cable connected to the laptop.
"It isn't possible."
Alejandro folded his arms.
"You've said that twice this week."
Javier looked up.
"And both times I meant it."
He disconnected the memory card and removed the battery.
"The computer wasn't connected to the internet."
"No wireless signal."
"No remote access."
"Someone had to be inside the mansion."
Valeria glanced toward the office door.
"Watching us."
Alejandro immediately ordered every employee to gather in the grand ballroom.
Within twenty minutes, more than fifty people stood quietly beneath the crystal chandeliers.
Housekeepers.
Gardeners.
Drivers.
Chefs.
Security guards.
Office assistants.
No one knew why they had been summoned.
Alejandro stood at the front of the room.
His voice was calm, but carried through every corner.
"For years, many of you have served this family with loyalty."
He paused.
"I've trusted you with my home."
"My wife."
"My son."
He slowly looked across the crowd.
"But someone standing in this room betrayed that trust."
Uneasy whispers spread among the staff.
Alejandro raised one hand.
"They are responsible for Elena's death."
The whispers stopped instantly.
"I don't know who it is."
"Yet."
"But I promise you this."
"If anyone here has been threatened..."
"If anyone has been paid to remain silent..."
"If anyone knows even the smallest piece of the truth..."
"This is your chance."
"No punishment."
"No revenge."
"Just the truth."
Silence filled the ballroom.
No one stepped forward.
Not a single person.
After several long moments, Alejandro nodded sadly.
"You may return to work."
The employees slowly dispersed.
Some looked frightened.
Others confused.
A few refused to meet Alejandro's eyes.
Valeria quietly watched each face.
Most seemed genuinely shocked.
But one woman caught her attention.
A young housekeeper named Rosa.
She looked as though she wanted to speak.
Yet every time she took a step forward...
She glanced toward Ricardo Salazar.
Ricardo gave her a calm, reassuring smile.
She immediately lowered her head and walked away.
Valeria noticed.
So did Doña Socorro.
That afternoon, Valeria found Rosa crying behind the laundry building.
She wasn't working.
She simply sat alone on a wooden bench, twisting a handkerchief between trembling fingers.
Valeria approached carefully.
"May I sit?"
Rosa quickly wiped her eyes.
"I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
The young woman forced a smile.
"I'm just tired."
Valeria remained silent for a few moments.
Then quietly said,
"You're afraid."
Rosa looked down.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You wanted to tell Alejandro something."
"No."
"You looked at Ricardo before you walked away."
Rosa's breathing became uneven.
"You noticed?"
Valeria nodded.
"I wasn't the only one."
Tears rolled down Rosa's cheeks.
"I can't."
"Why?"
"He said..."
Her voice cracked.
"...he said my family would disappear."
Valeria's heart sank.
"So he threatened you."
Rosa slowly nodded.
"He knows where my parents live."
"My little sisters."
"I can't risk them."
Valeria gently took Rosa's shaking hands.
"You've been carrying this alone?"
"For two years."
Rosa finally spoke.
"The week before Señora Elena died..."
"Ricardo asked me to clean his office."
"I accidentally knocked over a folder."
She swallowed hard.
"Photographs fell onto the floor."
"What kind of photographs?"
"Pictures of Señora Elena."
Valeria frowned.
"From where?"
"Outside the hospital."
"The church."
"The bookstore."
"The playground where Mateo liked to feed the pigeons."
Valeria felt a chill.
"He was following her."
Rosa nodded.
"When Ricardo came back..."
"...he smiled."
"He helped me pick them up."
"Then he quietly told me..."
She stopped speaking.
"What did he say?"
Rosa closed her eyes.
"'Some things are safer when forgotten.'"
That evening, Valeria told Alejandro everything.
He listened without interrupting.
When she finished, he remained silent for a long time.
Finally, he stood.
"I'm going to arrest him."
Valeria immediately shook her head.
"Not yet."
Alejandro stared at her.
"We finally have a witness."
"We have fear," Valeria corrected.
"Not proof."
"He'll deny everything."
"And if he's innocent?"
Alejandro looked away.
"I don't believe he is."
"Neither do I."
She stepped closer.
"But Elena asked us to find the truth."
"Not assumptions."
Alejandro slowly exhaled.
She was right.
Again.
That night, Mateo couldn't sleep.
Valeria sat beside his bed reading one of his favorite picture books.
Halfway through the story, the little boy suddenly reached beneath his pillow.
He pulled out a folded piece of paper.
Valeria frowned.
"What's this?"
Mateo handed it to her.
She unfolded it carefully.
It was an old child's drawing.
Clearly made years earlier.
Crayon lines covered the page.
A family of three stood holding hands.
Alejandro.
Elena.
Mateo.
Behind them stood another man.
Unlike the others, his face was completely colored black.
Above him, in uneven childish handwriting, was a single word.
UNCLE
Valeria's pulse quickened.
"Mateo..."
She looked at him.
"Who is Uncle?"
The little boy's breathing became faster.
His eyes fixed on the drawing.
Then...
For the first time since his mother's death...
He forced out another word.
Very soft.
Barely audible.
"...Ricky..."
Valeria froze.
"Ricky?"
Mateo nodded once before curling into a ball, exhausted.
Valeria immediately remembered something.
Earlier that week, she had overheard one of the older employees speaking.
They hadn't called Ricardo "Mr. Salazar."
They had called him...
Ricky.
The next morning, Javier rushed into Alejandro's office carrying an old personnel file.
"I found something."
Alejandro looked up.
"What is it?"
Javier laid two employee records side by side.
One belonged to Ricardo Salazar.
The other belonged to a former chauffeur named...
Ricardo Salas.
Both files contained the same photograph.
The same fingerprints.
The same date of birth.
Only the surname had changed.
Javier looked directly at Alejandro.
"He didn't erase his past."
"He changed his name."
Alejandro slowly opened the second file.
His eyes widened.
Employment Date:
Twenty-six years ago.
Position:
Personal Driver to Alejandro's Father.
Remarks:
Dismissed without explanation.
Attached to the final page was a faded handwritten note from Alejandro's late father.
Only one sentence remained legible.
Never allow Ricardo near the family again.
The room fell completely silent.
Then Javier turned over one final document hidden beneath the file.
It was an adoption certificate.
The child's name had been blacked out.
But one line remained visible.
Legal Guardian: Ricardo Salas.
Alejandro frowned.
"Whose child?"
Javier slowly looked up.
"The file is incomplete."
"But according to the date..."
"...the child would be about twenty-six years old today."
None of them realized that, just outside the office door, someone had been listening to every word.
The shadow quietly stepped away.
Pulled out a phone.
And whispered,
"They know about the old name."
A calm voice answered from the other end.
May you like
"Then it's time for Phase Two."
The call ended.
